Actors Who Appeared On Law & Order Before They Were Stars

Philip Seymour Hoffman Played A Man Accused Of Rape

The late Philip Seymour Hoffman made his on-screen debut in the first season of the crime drama (he’s credited as simply Philip Hoffman). He appeared in the 1991 episode, “The Violence of Summer.” Hoffman played one of three men accused of gang-raping a TV news reporter. He appeared alongside another up-and-coming star who we’ll get to next. No one could have predicted that 15 years later Hoffman would win an Academy Award (he won the Oscar in 2006 for Capote). One year following his L&O appearance he starred in The Scent of a Woman opposite Chris O’Donnell, and his career steadily grew bigger before his death from a drug overdose in 2014.